Faizabad (UP), May 17: In yet another conviction of a BSP lawmaker in a murder case, a special court here today awarded life imprisonment to former Uttar Pradesh Minister and party MLA Anand Sen for kidnapping and killing a dalit girl student four years ago.

Pronouncing the verdict, Judge Matambar Singh also sentenced the MLA's driver Vijay Sen and his associate Seema Azad to life terms for murdering Shashi who was pursuing a law degree.

The court slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 each on the MLA and Vijay Sen and Rs 15,000 on Azad.

The verdict came 11 days after BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari was given life imprisonment for murdering PWD engineer Manoj Kumar after he refused to pay donation for Chief Minister Mayawati's birthday celebrations in 2008.

Shashi, who was studying law in a college in Faizabad, had gone missing on October 22, 2007. Her father Yogender Prasad had alleged that the then BSP minister Anand Sen had abducted and killed his daughter.

Anand Sen was also accused of having an affair with Shashi who was allegedly pressuring him to marry her.

The body of Shashi had not been recovered and the court delivered the verdict based on testimonies of the witnesses, prosecution counsel Saeed Khan said.

He said a total of 32 witnesses testified in the murder case which rocked the state four years ago.

In the PWD engineer murder case judgement on May six, Special Additional District Judge Virendra Kumar had also sentenced the MLA's wife Vibha to two-and-a-half-year prison term for destroying evidence.

In Lucknow, BSP today welcomed the Faizabad court order and said the verdict had been possible due to effective steps taken by the state government.

“We welcome the court's decision to award life sentence to former minister Anand Sen and two others. Sen was immediately sacked from the party and also from his ministerial post as soon as his name cropped up in law student Shashi murder case”, a party release issued here said.

Contrary to other political parties, BSP was the only party, which immediately took action against those found involved in criminal activities, it said.

“In earlier governments in the state, the criminals were shielded but it was not done in the BSP regime”, it added. PTI